From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Eli Zaretskii" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs for sites with different operating systems and CVS. Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 07:48:03 +0300 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <2950-Wed28May2003074802+0300-eliz@elta.co.il> References: Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1054097124 20041 80.91.224.249 (28 May 2003 04:45:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 04:45:24 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed May 28 06:45:19 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 19KsoR-0005Ce-00 for ; Wed, 28 May 2003 06:45:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19KsqC-0001p7-Ah for gnu-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 28 May 2003 00:47:08 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19Ksq1-0001fU-O8 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 28 May 2003 00:46:57 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19Kspx-0001Wy-8V for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 28 May 2003 00:46:53 -0400 Original-Received: from bilbo.inter.net.il ([192.114.186.18]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19Kspr-0001HH-7J for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 28 May 2003 00:46:52 -0400 Original-Received: from zaretsky (tony08-232-64.inter.net.il [80.230.232.64] (may be forged)) by bilbo.inter.net.il (Mirapoint Messaging Server MOS 3.2.2-GA) with ESMTP id ASM61966; Wed, 28 May 2003 07:46:44 +0300 (IDT) Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailer: emacs 21.3.50 (via feedmail 8 I) and Blat ver 1.8.9 In-reply-to: (message from Galen Boyer on 27 May 2003 23:05:18 -0500) X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:10267 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:10267 > From: Galen Boyer > Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help > Date: 27 May 2003 23:05:18 -0500 > > When maintaining Emacs for a site where users are on different > platforms, should you > > Check in compiled code for each platform? > Check in source and give them the scripts to build for each platform? > Check in the tar file and let them untar to their directories while > just maintaining external packages? > > I think the second option, but then why is there, seemingly, a specific > source tree for the windows Emacs? Because Windows users are used to get pre-compiled binaries. The main reason for this is that Windows systems normally don't have a compiler installed on them, so most Windows users cannot themselves build Emacs. OTOH, with the proliferation of Unix systems where the compiler is an optional product not installed by default, perhaps the Unix version should be a binary as well. > Are there different steps because > there are special files and such which therefore make it difficult to > build windows from the same source as Linux as ... The main issue to figure out is how to install Emacs so that it will find all its files. Emacs (as well as other GNU packages) has the names of the directories where to find files hard-coded into it. The configure script takes care of creating a header file where those directories are spelled out, as determined by the configuration procedure. So the pre-compiled binary expects its Lisp, Info, subprograms (such as etags), and other auxiliary files to be in certain places; you must make sure that these directories exist on the target system and the files Emacs looks for are in those directories. (Of course, the usual Unix tricks with symlinks can help you out.) Either that, or make sure that environment variables which override the default locations of these files are all set appropriately on the target system. > Is there anyplace I can go to know what I should do to build Emacs from > one source for multiple platforms, or do I dig through all of the notes > and such in the etc directory. > > Are there any manuals and howtos as well as FAQs for site-admins? I don't know of any docs about this, but the above kinda summarizes it all. Feel free to ask more, though.